Corinth City

The origins of Corinth as a community are tied to its continuing railroad heritage; an association that has brought it periods of both prosperity and near ruin. Many communities near the long, shared border of Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama benefited from the successful effort to link the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean with the opening of the Memphis & Charleston Railroad in 1857. However, it was Corinth alone that was granted the chance to prosper from the establishment of two rail links, the Memphis & Charleston and the Mobile & Ohio, the latter completed in 1861. The placement of the survey lines in 1854 for both railroads crossed in a remote corner of old Tishomingo County in Mississippi, thus establishing the opportunity for a new community, one to serve as a trade magnet for the vast cotton plantations of western Tennessee and northeast Mississippi.

Organization of a formal community was made possible by Houston Mitchell and Hamilton Mask in 1855 with the purchase of a half-section of land surrounding the planned rail crossing. The two men laid out a gridded plan of lots and streets as the matrix for "Cross City," as the community was first called. The astonishing growth of the community over the next year lead to its incorporation in March of 1856, with the more formal name of Corinth.